John Cordes

Will Chrysler Crash?

Ok free marketeers, the UAW is not the boogyman, perhaps globilzation poliitics are, but the real systemic problem with the Big Three, is that they have ossified under their own weight and via a willing Congress happily facilitating the problem. The car companies have spent fortunes on lobbying to preserve the cafe standards and crash safety requirements while the Japanese and the Koreans, not to mention European car companies have instead developed fuel efficient, safer and more attractive products, the American car companies have institutionalized the status quo through lobbying and poor politics.

Good sales will overcome any disadvantage. So the UAW causes a price disadvantage to American car manufacturers? Well I guess that logic just doesn't apply to Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, etc. insofar as price competitiveness doesn't seem to limit their sales. Labor costs to high to build in America? Is that why Hyundai, Nissan and Toyota keep opening American plants. Chrysler builds poor quality cars? No, not really, they build cars that people don't want to own because; poor fuel economy, boring designs, no cachet, mediocre safety ratings. The American car companies locked themselves into the truck and suv market by preserving favourable trade barriers in this market from Asain manufacturers through, (you guessed it) effective lobbying of our Congress and Administration regulators. American car companies are woefully behind in fuel efficiency for........ the same reason.

So get off the boogieman UAW and labor as scapegoat. McSame and the Republicans can't keep touting their "I believe in the American Worker" as a badge of patriotism and at the same time trash all labor unions as the great satan of American businesses failures.